(upbeat music) - Hi, everybody, and welcome back to Room 9, our region's largest classroom.

My name is Miss St. Louis, and I'm a teacher at Rogers Elementary School in the Melville School District.

And we are located in South St. Louis County.

Today I'm here to teach a movement lesson that's geared towards students of all ages.

So let's get ready to get moving.

Today, we're gonna start by warming our bodies up from our head to our toes.

So let's start at the top.

We're gonna shake our head, yes, moving our chin up and down, saying, yes.

Now let's say, no.

We're gonna go side to side.

Moving my chin to my shoulder and to the other side.

Side to side, saying, no.

And maybe so.

So now I'm gonna bring my ear to my shoulder and switch, maybe so.

Very good.

All right, let's move to our shoulders.

Can you bring your shoulders up in a shrug and down?

And up and down.

Now let's do some scissors, big scissors across, opening my arms wide and bringing them together.

Out and together, big scissors.

Now let's bring our arms out and make some tiny arm circles forward.

Making really small circles.

Can you make them a little bigger, and bigger, and stop?

Let's go back out, and we're gonna make those tiny circles and go backwards this time with our circles.

Going in reverse the other direction.

Get a little bigger and bigger.

Very good.

Shake one arm out.

Shake the other arm out.

Shake them both out.

Excellent.

Let's move on to our core, the center of our body.

I'm gonna put my hands on my hips, and I'm gonna tip to one side.

And tip to the other, going back and forth.

Back and forth.

All right, let's do the same thing except this time, we're gonna go forward and backwards, forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards.

Now we're going to twist, so I'm gonna use my elbows to help me.

I'm gonna twist and bring one elbow to the front.

Notice I don't move my feet.

They're stuck.

I'm only moving the center of my body.

Twist.

Twist the other elbow going forward.

Twist, twist, twist, twist, twist, twist.

Very good.

All right, let's move to our legs.

I'm gonna start by stretching up nice and tall, and reaching for my toes.

Reach down as far as you can, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach.

And slowly come back up.

All right, same thing again.

Stretch up nice and tall, and reach down for your toes.

This time, try and stretch a little farther.

So if you reach to your toes, see if you can touch the floor.

If you reach to your knees, see if you can stretch a little bit farther.

Each time we stretch, we should aim to go just a tiny bit farther than we did before.

And slowly come up.

Let's bring our legs up into a straddle.

That's a wide stance.

So my feet are out nice and wide, far apart.

And I've created a triangle with my legs on the floor.

I'm gonna stretch up tall and reach down one side all the way as far as I can, holding that stretch.

You should feel it in the back of your leg.

And slowly come up and go all the way back up, stretching up top, and coming down the other leg, reaching down as far as you can and holding that stretch.

Again, you'll feel it in the back of that leg.

And slowly come up reaching all the way to the sky.

And this time we're gonna reach all the way to the floor stretching as far down as you can, holding that stretch.

You'll feel it in the back of both legs this time.

Feel that stretch, and slowly come up.

Go ahead and shake one leg out, and shake the other leg out.

All right, we're gonna do a quick little exercise before we get into our activities today to get our heart rate ready.

We're gonna jog in place for 20 seconds.

Now, a jog doesn't mean an all out sprint.

It just means a slow kind of run.

So at a medium pace, go ahead and find your jogging pace.

Are you ready?

We're gonna count to 20 today.

Let's go.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

And stop.

Excellent job, guys.

How do you feel?

Are you warmed up and ready to go?

Excellent.

So today, boys and girls, we're gonna be twisting and turning and move in all kinds of directions.

Today, we're gonna be crossing our body, moving from side to side.

So we're gonna start standing up today, and then later we'll move to the floor.

All right.

So our first activity, we're gonna come back to that straddle position we started with, bringing our legs out nice and wide.

And I'm gonna bring my hands up above my head.

Now we're gonna be talking about opposites today, moving from one side to the other.

So I'm gonna take this hand and I'm gonna bring it to my opposite foot.

Stretching to reach across my body to touch my toes.

Come up.

Now, I'm gonna take my other hand and stretch across my body to touch my other toe.

I'm gonna do it again.

Taking my hand, going across my body to touch my toe, switching to touch my other side.

All right, do you think we can do, hmm, six of those?

All right, let's do six.

I'm going to cross one.

Come back up.

Two, come back up.

Three, come back up.

Four, five, last one.

Six, come back up.

Whew.

How do you feel?

Feeling good?

All right, let's do that again, but let's try and speed it up a little bit faster.

Now, if I'm going too fast for you, slow it down.

Go your own speed.

Ready?

All right.

Six more.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Whew!

Oh, it's tough.

How do you feel?

All right, you ready to keep crossing our bodies?

Okay.

Let's come back to standing.

We're gonna start slow with this one.

This time I'm gonna bring my elbow to my knee, but I'm crossing those sides.

Did you notice that?

This elbow touches this knee.

Cross.

Now you might have to crunch your body to get them to cross.

That means I might have to bend over a little bit.

So as I cross, I might have to bend down, and then I'm gonna switch, bringing my other elbow to my knee Cross.

Try it with me.

Bringing your elbow to your opposite knee.

Cross it.

Switch arms.

Elbow to your knee.

Do you think we're ready to try six of those?

All right, let's do it.

We'll go slow to start.

1, and cross.

Switching arms.

2.

Back to the beginning.

3, and 4.

5, last one.

6.

How did that feel?

Was that harder or easier than when we touched our toes?

Yeah, it was a little bit harder.

This time requires a little bit more balance, because we have to stand on one foot as we're crossing our body.

So it's a little easier to go slow, but let's see if we can challenge ourselves by picking up the pace a little bit, going a little bit faster.

Now, remember, if I'm too fast for you, slow down.

Go at your own pace.

Are you ready?

All right.

And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Whew!

How did that feel?

Pretty good?

Do you think we could do six more?

All right, let's do six more to finish it off.

Ready?

And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Whew!

That felt good.

Don't you think?

All right, now on this next one, we're gonna continue on with that balance, standing on one foot, but this time we're gonna bring our hand to touch the other foot.

Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?

It does, but this time we're gonna be kicking.

So I'm gonna bring my foot out and bring my opposite arm to touch.

Now, it's a little hard for me to reach and touch my foot, so I'm gonna reach as far as I can.

But if my hands can't touch my foot, that's okay.

I'm just gonna try my best.

So I'm going to step, kick, and cross.

Now I'm gonna go to the other side.

So this hand's gonna touch this foot, so I can kick up to touch, almost like a soldier.

You ready?

Do you think you can try some with me?

All right, get your hand ready and your opposite leg.

Kick that leg up and touch.

Good.

Let's switch sides.

Get that arm ready.

Kick up and touch.

Very good.

Do you think we can try six of those?

All right, let's go slow to start.

So we're going to step and kick, and kick.

Good.

3, 4, 5, and 6.

Excellent job.

Do you think that was harder or easier than bringing my elbow to my knee?

Yeah, for me too, that one's a little bit more difficult, but let's try it one more time.

Six more, and let's speed it up a little.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Excellent job, boys and girls.

All right, we have one more exercise to do standing up, and this one you're gonna need a ball or a stuffed animal or something that you can hold onto, and we're gonna practice making figure eights.

I'm gonna use my legs to help me.

So I need to stand with my legs apart.

I'm gonna hold onto my ball.

I'm gonna hold my ball up front, and I'm gonna take it between my legs and grab it with my other hand behind.

Grabbing it, I'm gonna bring it behind my body, come back around my legs.

Switch.

My other hand's gonna grab it in the back, and I'm gonna bring it around.

I'm making a figure eight with the ball.

So I'm going backwards, grabbing the ball, bringing it around, grabbing it with my other hand, bringing it around the other leg, and switching, bringing it around, and making an eight with my hands.

Now, as you get better at this, you can speed it up and go a little bit faster.

How are your figure eights?

Now, remember if going fast is hard, go slow.

And I'm gonna switch and go around.

Now, you wanna challenge yourself?

Go the other direction, make it a little harder.

This is definitely a challenge skill.

Excellent job, boys and girls.

Well, you take a little bit more time to practice.

Let's take a break, grab some hydration, meaning a little bit of water, and we'll be back.

Next time, we'll be on the floor when I see you to do some more exercises.

See you in a few.

All right, we're back.

And this time we are down on the floor, and we're gonna continue our twisting and crossing down here.

So the first activity that we are going to do are going to be some bicycles on the floor.

So here's how we do that.

We're gonna come down to the floor.

I'm gonna bring my feet out in front of me.

Now I'm gonna lean back.

This is gonna require a lot of my tummy strength, my core.

I'm going to bring my elbow to my knee, just like I did when I was standing up.

But this time I'm gonna have to hold myself up using those core muscles, those stomach muscles.

So I'm gonna come all the way down, and I'm going to bring my legs, my knee to my elbow.

So I'm gonna cross up and come back down.

Cross up and come back down.

Cross up and come back down.

Notice I'm still bringing my knee to my elbow, but this time I'm laying down.

So we know the last time it was a little hard, because we had to balance.

This makes it a little easier.

Are you ready to do six of them with me?

All right, go ahead and lay on your back.

We're gonna cross elbow to knee for one.

Come back down.

Two.

Come back down.

Three.

Keep going.

Four.

Five.

Last one.

Six.

Come back down.

Whew!

Very good.

How did that feel?

All right, let's take it up a notch and make it a little harder.

This time, we're gonna go a little bit faster.

Now, remember as you do these, I don't want you to pull your head up.

I'm keeping my hands behind my head to protect my neck, but I'm not using my stomach muscles to help pull me up and cross.

Okay.

Are you ready?

All right.

One.

Bring it back.

Okay.

If you wanna make it harder, lift your feet up.

Two.

Bring them back up.

Remember, you can always keep them on the floor.

This is a little bit harder.

Three.

Switch.

Four, five, and six.

Whew!

We made it a little bit harder that time.

So by lifting our feet up, used more of our stomach muscles than it originally did.

Use whichever method is more comfortable for you.

And then as we practice, we'll get to get to the harder stuff.

All right, let's try something different.

This time, we're gonna try twisting.

So I'm gonna keep my feet on the floor.

I'm gonna bring my hands in front of me.

Now, if you still have that ball handy, let's grab mine, it's gonna come be a little bit of a help for us.

I'm gonna now touch the ball to one side.

If you don't have a ball, just use your hands.

I'm gonna touch it to one side, bring it back up, and touch it to the other.

Bringing it back up.

I'm gonna go from side to side, side to side.

Keep going with me.

Side to side.

Side to side.

Side to side.

Speed it up if you can.

Wanna make it a little harder?

Now, use those core muscles.

Lift your feet up in the air and keep going side to side.

This is definitely harder.

If you need to, put your feet back on the floor, but if you want that challenge, lift your feet up.

Let's do four more.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Whew!

Keeping your feet up really does use your stomach a little bit more, doesn't it?

All right, we're working hard.

Let's try something different.

This time, I want you to come up to your knees, bringing your feet in front of you.

Now I'm gonna face you, but I'm gonna turn to the side to show you what that looks like.

So I am bringing my arms right below my shoulders, and I'm up on my knees.

Now you can do this with your hands, but if you have your handy dandy ball, it can help you too.

I'm gonna take my ball and I'm gonna bring it to one side and bring my hands back.

Now I'm gonna grab it, and I'm gonna cross it back over, bringing my hands back.

Grab the ball, cross it over my arms, bringing my hand back.

If you don't have a ball, I want you to just tap and come back.

Tap with the other side, and come back.

Tap all the way over and come back.

Tap and come back.

Keep going.

Four more.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Very good.

A next step could be crossing it over and raising it into the air.

So you can hold onto it and cross one, bring it back down.

Cross two, up in the air.

Three, crossing it.

Four, lifting it up as high as you can.

Five, keep going.

Six.

Now wanna challenge yourself even further?

Instead of being on your knees, push yourself up to that pushup position.

Now you're still gonna really have to use those core muscles as you cross them in front.

So I'm gonna go up to that pushup position, and I'm gonna cross.

Cross.

Cross And, cross.

Whew!

I only got four that time before I had to come down, but that's okay.

That one's a lot harder.

It uses a lot of your arm strength.

It uses balance, it uses our core.

That one's definitely a tough one to try.

All right.

So, boys and girls, today we practiced a lot of different ways to cross over our body and twist and turn.

Did you have fun?

Are you feeling those twisting and turning muscles in your core working?

Me, too.

So we're gonna finish today with our mindful moment.

We're gonna keep that twisting and turning going.

Today, we're gonna make rainbow breaths.

So when we cross our rainbow over, we're gonna breathe in, and as we bring our rainbow back, we're gonna breathe out.

So we're gonna take one hand to one side, and we're gonna make big rainbow arches with our hands.

Can you make an arch with me?

We're gonna go all the way up over our head and back down to one side.

Then I'm gonna switch hands, and I'll bring it back.

Ready?

So I'm gonna start over, I'm gonna breathe in as I go up and over.

Breathe in.

(inhales) Now I'm gonna switch hands as I breathe out.

(exhales) Switching back, breathe in.

(inhales) And out.

(exhales) And in.

(inhales) And out.

(exhales) And in.

(inhales) And out.

(exhales) Keep those rainbows going.

Two more.

In.

(inhales) And out.

(exhales) And in.

(inhales) And out.

(exhales) So those rainbow breaths are a really great way to practice twisting and turning, as we take our deep breaths and calm our bodies down.

Now, as you go through the rest of your week, I hope that you have a chance to practice your twisting and turning.

Challenge yourself to some of these harder skills we tried.

Or see if you can come up with some on your own.

Using a ball and twisting and turning is a great way.

Playing games like hot potato with your friends is a really great way to practice twisting from side to side.

Remember, we encourage you to do 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity every single day.

And playing a game of hot potato is a really great way to get that physical activity in.

You can do that.

You can walk, you can skip, you can dance, anything you can do to get your body moving.

So I hope that you had fun today twisting and turning with us, and we'll see you back here next week in Room 9.

Bye, everybody (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Teaching in Room 9 is made possible with support of Bank of America, Dana Brown Charitable Trust, Emerson, and viewers like you.

(upbeat music)